


Blood Tells

by Kris



Category: Blood Ties
Genre: M/M, Slash, Vampires, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-09-24
Updated: 2008-09-24
Packaged: 2017-10-12 09:56:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/123628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kris/pseuds/Kris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Henry Fitzroy wakes up it's with the sense that everything is wrong. For one there's a heartbeat in his bedroom and he remembers going to bed alone last night and then there's the patch of sunlight streaming into his bedroom and the fact that he's a vampire and he's not on fire. He's so blown away by being awake and alive in the day time that it takes him a minute to remember the heartbeat.</p><p>And then he realizes it's coming from him.</p><p>And then he panics.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blood Tells

**Author's Note:**

> beta read by Ash/Jack Vale
> 
> Written for Laclapa for the now defunct rentafangirl livejournal community

The red and blue lights flashing over the wall of the alley add a kind of burlesque feel to the sickening scene in front of them. A symbol is painted on the wall in the victim's blood. Kate excuses herself to puke quietly in the corner and no one back at the station will dare comment on the fact that she was the only one to loose it. 

The girl, maybe 15, is lying naked behind the Cambridge Club. Her neck is bent at an unnatural angle, even for being broken. Her eyes would be wide open and looking directly at the symbol on the wall if they were still in their sockets.

"Just like the other ones, Detective Celluci," Dr. Rajani Mohadevan says. The calm detachedness of her voice makes a part of Mike want to shake her and scream that this was a girl, this was a person. How can you be so calm when her guts are clinging to the brick wall? How can you act like this when the poor financial broker who found her is going to be scarred for life, sitting in the back of an ambulance with an oxygen mask on because she can't stop hyperventilating?

"She has a symbol too?" He manages to ask instead because he has a job too, he's a Detective with the Toronto Police Department and he didn't get where he is now by freaking out on the Coroner.

Mohadevan hums in assent and tilts the victim's head to the side, pulls her eyelids closed over the empty sockets and sure enough there are two identical symbols carved into her eyelids. Mike swallows the bile down sharply as his partner Kate Lam comes back over looking a little hollow eyed. This is their third victim. This is not how he wanted to spend his Thursday morning.

***

When Henry Fitzroy wakes up it’s with the sense that everything is wrong. For one there’s a heartbeat in his bedroom and he remembers going to bed alone last night and then there’s the patch of sunlight streaming into his bedroom and the fact that he’s a vampire and he’s not on fire. He’s so blown away by being awake and alive in the day time that it takes him a minute to remember the heartbeat.

And then he realizes it’s coming from him.

And then he panics.

***

“Ah!” Vicki leans against the doorframe of her office watching Coreen pull her shirt away from her with the pout of someone who is being denied their caffeine.

“Afternoon, Coreen.” Her assistant looks up at her from under her bangs and heaves a sigh of gigantic proportions.

“It’s one of those days,” Coreen says. “I got out of bed on the wrong side, I swear.”

“Because you spilt coffee?” Vicki asks. Loosing a cup of coffee doesn’t usually garner this kind of response.

“No, because the building had no hot water so I had a freezing cold shower.” Vicki winces but Coreen isn’t done, she’s just building up steam. “I got stuck in the elevator for an hour this morning until the super let me out and then he gives me a notice that they’re going to be fumigating the building tomorrow and now I’m going to be spending the night at the office, I tripped up the stairs and thought ‘gee, at least I didn’t drop my coffee’ and then I dropped my coffee.” She finishes by dropping her head against the desk, the thump muffled by the papers and files lying there.

“Huh, sounds like you’re having a bad day,” Vicki says, she holds back the grin that’s threatening to come out. She can be sympathetic, no matter what everybody says.

“How about you woke up human?” Henry says and Vicki’s eyes snap to the vampire the way they always do. There Henry is, standing, swaying really, just inside the doorway of the office and sure enough, he’s in a patch of sunlight. He doesn’t look good.

“Coreen? Am I hallucinating, or is Henry standing in the sun?” Coreen jerks her head up from the desk and stares. 

“We could both be hallucinating?” she offers cheerfully and Vicki remembers she promised the witch a nice, freaky-free week of work.

“Henry? Are you…”

“Alright?” he interrupts. “No, not really, I can hear heartbeats everywhere and I’m starving and the sun feels like it’s burning me up and I can’t feed because I can’t get my fangs out for the life of me.” He stumbles into the office and collapses on the couch. In the corner where there’s no sunlight, Vicki notes. He kind of curls up into himself and that’s when Vicki notices he has the shakes.

“Did you try eating something?” she asks. He spares her a withering glare which she’s sure he wishes could burn her from the inside. She rolls her eyes in response and throws her hands up in air. “I meant did you try eating food instead of people?”

“Yes Vicki, I tried that, and it’s just sitting there the way it always does without blood to digest it.” Vicki and Coreen make identical eww faces.

“It’s okay,” Vicki says taking a deep breath. “We’ll fix this, I promise.” Henry just curls up a little more.

***

“Look, Vicki can help on this. You know it, I know it, and everyone in this room knows it so just suck it up and call her in,” Mike snaps in irritation. There are looks of disbelief coming from his partner Kate Lam and relief from the other detectives crowded into Senior Detective Alison Crowley’s office. They’ve been at this meeting for the last three hours trying to make details work but the case doesn’t even dip into the realm of normal, let alone comply with any kind of profile. Crowley gives him a dirty look and slams one of the victim files down on her desk.

“Fine,” she grates out. “You call her in and you can deal with her. But if she steps out of line even once, she’ll be in lock-up faster than any of you can friggin blink.”

“Thank you,” Mike jerks the door open with just a little too much force and stomps out to grab his coat off the back of his chair. He can hear Kate’s sensible heels click-clacking behind him a moment later. She follows him out to the sedan and climbs into the passenger seat, shoving her long black hair behind her.

“You sure this is a good idea?” she asks carefully. He can’t really blame her, he’s been an ass since they were called to the alley this morning and the third victim’s file hit his desk. There's a predator on the loose in Toronto and it’s definitely one of Vicki’s kind of cases and he hates even admitting that. 

Seven months ago if you had asked him if he believed in vampires and demons he would have laughed and called you stupid. Now he lives in a world where if he’s not out until at least three, four in the morning, he doesn’t feel like he’s doing his job well enough to keep the streets safe for people.

“Yeah, well, we have 3 people dead with these stupid demonic symbols etched into their foreheads and the techs can’t make heads or tails out of the poison used to kill them. We have every cop in the precinct on this and we’re still not making any head way. We need new eyes on this and you have to admit, she’s been digging into the strange and twisted lately,” Mike mutters. 

It’s a short ride to Vicki’s office from the station with a stop for coffee on the way. Mike knows better than to show up at Vicki’s place without a peace offering of either Chinese or specialty coffee. He nods down to the files Kate is clutching on her lap.

“You want to come up or wait in the car?” he asks her. She contemplates for a minute before shaking her head and handing the files over.

“No, I’ll wait here, the last time we were in a room together I thought she was going to rip my head off or something.” 

“She won’t rip your head off,” Mike says with a sigh and shakes his head. “It’s just Vicki’s way with people, I can’t really explain it.” He leaves it at that, getting out of the car and taking the files she hands him. He doesn’t want to get into an argument over Vicki, Kate’s already looking over his files and watching him too closely. He doesn’t want to lose another partner because they don’t like his extracurricular activities.

He takes the stairs two at a time to get up to Vicki’s office on the second floor. The coffee cups rattle in the cardboard holder. The door is already open and when he walks in both she and Coreen are crowded around Coreen’s desk digging through stacks of books. He hopes for a moment that they’re already somehow working on his case, maybe the family of one of the victims has come to Vicki for help, but the symbols on the pages they have open aren’t anything like the ones they’ve found on the victims.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” Mike asks. Vicki looks at him like he’s her salvation and Coreen jumps up to give him a hug and steal the cardboard tray out of his hands.

“Mike! You’re here! And you brought coffee!” There’s a low pained moan from the other side of the room and Mike turns around startled to see his highness, the bastard son of King Henry the VIII curled up in a ball on the couch, the sun streaming full on him.

“Jesus! What the hell is he doing here? And why isn’t he on fire?” Vicki shakes her head and gestures to the books.

“Pull up a seat and dig in,” she offers. “We’re looking for any kind of spell or enchantment or demon that can turn a vampire into a half human or give them back their heart but we haven’t found anything yet.”

Mike takes a closer look at Henry who really doesn’t look good at all. He’s pasty pale, and it looks like he’s sweating. When he reaches a hand towards him, Henry makes a pathetic attempt to hiss and catch his hand but doesn’t manage it. He’s not even all fangy. Mike lets Henry hold onto his hand and draw it to his mouth, doesn’t flinch when Henry just holds it there, the pulse in his wrist beating against the vampire’s lips. It’s making his stomach twist just watching it and he pulls away after a minute when he realizes that the twisting isn't all that unpleasant.

“Hey Mike, this is like the zoo, no teasing the animals,” Vicki orders.

“What the hell does that mean?” Mike demands.

“He can’t feed. He tried eating people food but he can’t get his fangs out so he can’t drink blood and we’ve tried feeding him blood but it’s not doing anything. We need to find a way to fix this soon,” Vicki says. “Before he starves to death.” Mike stares at her like she’s insane and looks down at Henry who’s looking up at him with big, pleading eyes begging for help and sighs a gusty sigh.

“Did you try cutting yourselves and feeding him that way?” Mike asks. Vicki snorts and both she and Coreen hold up a hand, both bearing matching cuts on their palms.

“Wanna try?” she asks sarcastically.

“Yeah, okay, I get it, you’ve tried everything,” Mike says. He sits on the edge of the couch beside Henry who’s so cold that Mike can feel him vibrating the couch from his shivering. He pulls his trench coat off and drops it over Henry who curls into it helplessly. “Jesus, it’s like the vampire version of Steven King’s Thinner,” he mutters.

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Vicki says. She shoves a stack of books at him with a raised eyebrow. “Wanna pull up a seat?”

“Can’t,” he says. “I have Kate in the car, I was just stopping by to see if you could look into something for me but I’ll figure something else out.” He shoves to his feet and leaves his coat where it is.

“We can take a quick look,” Vicki offers and Mike shrugs and opens the first victim’s file on Vicki's desk. 

"We have three murder victims. All of them have been found with this symbol painted on the wall." He pulls out the picture of the symbol, it's almost but not quite a curved 'S'. It looks like an Egyptian hieroglyph but not one that they've been able to find. Even the linguist they'd contacted hadn't been able to tell them what it was. He pulls out a picture of the first victim next.

"This is the first murder, we found the body in the middle of Echo Park," he passes the close up of the girl's face to Vicki. Mohadevan had found the symbols while trying to do a search by dental records. The girl's canines had been removed and a different symbol had been branded into the flesh on both sides of her mouth. Coreen makes a grossed out face.

"Ouch," Vicki says, detached. "What's the second one like?" Mike passes the file to her.

"Same symbol on the wall, this one had his heart cut out of his chest in the back of a van that was parked illegally in front of the museum. Different symbol branded into his chest." Vicki takes the third file and skips right to the picture of the girl's face, Mohadevan's fingers pulling down on her eyelids to get a picture of the symbols burned into them.

"It's always the same symbol on the wall?" Vicki questions. Mike nods.

"Yeah, and it's always a different symbol on the victim. He's escalating Vicki. The first victim was almost three weeks ago. The second was two days ago and we found the girl this morning in the alley behind the Cambridge." Vicki whistles low.

"You think it's a message to them maybe?" she asks.

"I could see that if she had been one of them, but no one in there recognized her at all."

“I’ve seen this before," Coreen says and Mike and Vicki both stare at her.

“You’ve seen this before?” Mike asks dryly because he would have remembered if this kind of case had come up before. Coreen blushes and stammers.

“No, no that…that’s not what I meant. I meant that I’ve seen these markings before. In a book. They’re leading up to something. I know I have it here, I just have to find it.” Coreen turns to stare at the bookshelf and distantly Mike hears a car horn.

“You probably want to get down there before she makes a mess in the car,” Vicki mutters. Mike rolls his eyes.

“Come on Vicki, you really need to stop treating all of my partners like pariahs. You drove Dave away and Kate thinks you’re going to claw her eyes out of her head.” Vicki smiles one of her shark smiles and Mike just shakes his head in disgust. 

“I’ll be back soon,” he mutters and doesn’t slam the door shut on his way out but it’s a close thing. For all Vicki bitches about his and Henry’s rivalry she’s always been quick to judge any one he gets close to.

“She give you anything interesting?” Kate asks when he gets to the car.

“I left the files with her, she’s going to take a look.” He climbs into the driver’s seat and slams the door shut, ignoring Kate’s incredulous look.

***

Generally speaking crime scenes don't make Mike sick, he's seen a lot on the streets of Toronto. He understands that there's a desperation that drives some men to do horrible things. He understands a lot more than he used to now that he's met Henry. Being that this is his fourth murder victim in as many weeks and his second one today, Mike isn't handling the blood and gore all that well. 

This time he's the one who has to take a moment. He doesn't puke but it's a close thing. He breathes steadily through his mouth, ignoring the metallic tang on his tongue, in the back of his throat and puts on the booties that the Crime Scene guys give him before he walks in. Kate is standing beside Dr. Mohadevan who's couched down on the floor behind the bed.

The bedroom had been tastefully decorated once upon a time before the arterial spray got to it. The rust coloured blood clashes with the indigo blue curtains. Expensive dark cherry bed and dresser. Plus two night tables, both cluttered, so either their victim is a pack rat or there's a significant other somewhere. The jewelry is still sitting on the dresser so it wasn't a robbery. He makes his way over to Kate's side.

The victim is male this time, in his 30's. Dark hair, eyes still in place staring vacantly up at a fixed point on the ceiling. Mike follows the victim's eyes and sure enough he's been positioned so he's looking directly at that same symbol as the other victims, painted into the corner of the ceiling.

"The cause of death is evisceration," Mohadevan says calmly. Her East Indian accent soft in the crowded room. She sounds just as tired of this as everyone else is. "And from liver temperature I would say that he was killed before our Jane Doe from the alley this morning." 

"We still don't have an ID on her?" Kate asks, whipping her book out. Mohadevan shook her head as she and one of her assistants roll the body onto his back and there for the whole world to see is a brand on his ribcage just above the tear in his stomach.

It hits Mike all of a sudden and he steps back out of the room, giving his booties to the crime scene guy at the door and flips open his cell phone, dialing Vicki's number by rote.

"Vicki Nelson Investigations," Coreen says.

"Hey Coreen, put Vicki on." She sighs and he can almost see her rolling her eyes at him, probably because Vicki is standing over her shoulder snapping her fingers at Coreen to hand over the phone. Sure enough the next voice is Vicki's.

"What have you got?" Vicki asks without preamble. Mike shakes his head and sighs.

"I need you to check on something for me. Can his Lordship see anything?" 

"What does that have to do with your…?"

"Vicki, check on Henry's eyes for me," Mike orders. Kate is in the hallway now with him and she raises an eyebrow in confusion. Vicki can explain everything to her though; Mike isn't going to be the one explaining the supernatural to his partner. There's a thunk on the other line as Vicki drops the phone onto the desk and he can hear murmured voices. She picks the phone up again a minute later.

"He can see but not like he used to," she says. "He doesn't know when that started. Now tell me what you have."

"We found another body and this one's been eviscerated, not like the girl from the alley, that was from getting cut in half by something. This guy died because someone slit his stomach opened and spilled his guts on the floor. And he died before the girl we found this morning."

"Shit," Vicki hisses.

"Yeah, so we have a girl without her canines, a guy without his heart, a girl without her eyes, and now a guy without his stomach. We'll be over there in twenty minutes." Kate's confusion is palpable. Mike jerks his head towards the door and starts out of the building. The crime scene unit still has to finish going over the place for evidence anyway. Kate calls out that they're following a lead and chases him to the elevator. He looks down at his feet and he can see a bit of blood on the cuff of his pants.

"What's going on here Mike?" Kate asks in the car. Her pretty Asian features are pulled into a worried expression that borders on angry.

"I can't explain it to you," Mike says.

"No, that doesn't fly anymore Celluci. I'm getting sick and tired of having to explain things to Crowley because you disappear in the middle of the night and your cases mysteriously wrap up in ways that don't make sense. You're going to start explaining right now what the hell you've been doing, what it is you know about this case that you aren’t sharing and what Vicki Nelson has to do with any of this or I'm not going to be covering for you anymore."

"You'll get your explanation," Mike says and starts the car, pulling away from the curb with a squeal of tires. "I'm just not the one who's going to do it." He thanks God that she keeps quiet the entire ride back to Vicki's office.

***

An hour ago, if you had asked her if she believed in vampires and demons and things that go bump in the night she would have laughed in your face, she had in fact laughed in Vicki’s until Coreen had shown her the file on Mendoza and Mike had shown her the scar on his neck and then the rest of their files. It takes her a minute, reading over the file of how Vicki got her tattoos and the demon who was after her, to realize where she’s seen Coreen before, she and Dave had had a good laugh over Mike interviewing the crazy girl who thought her boyfriend had been killed by a vampire.

“Jesus,” she mutters and feels a little sickened.

“Tell me about it,” Vicki says. Kate looks over at Henry Fitzroy, shivering ball of misery on the couch and ponders.

***

The bass in the club is pounding loudly, reverberating through his body and he smiles. The bartender leans over a little closer to him when he does and he turns his grin on her. He knows he’s handsome, knows how to use his looks and charm, and persuasion when necessary, to his benefit.

“What can I get for you?” she calls over the rhythmic thumping of the speakers. He tilts his head and studies her carefully. She has excellent bone structure and a beautiful voice but she’s short, much too short for his purposes. This one is special, has to be just right or the ritual will be a complete waste.

He asks for bourbon, neat, and faces the rest of the club. Bodies are crushed together on the dance floor, swaying and grinding together in frantic movements. Over by the stage area a band sets up for the live entertainment portion of the evening and it’s there that he sees him.

Not quite six feet tall, wavy brown hair at his shoulders, long lanky form, absolutely perfect. He makes his way across the floor through the throng of dancers until he reaches the stage. The boy, barely 20 if he’s a day, is putting down a stand for several guitars off to the side and tenses when he realizes he’s being watched. He watches him for a few moments until the boy comes closer with a curious expression.

“Something I can do for you?” the boy asks, his voice clear though it carries an undercurrent of tension and confusion. He smirks up at him.

“I certainly hope so,” the boy looks around before crouching down at the edge of the stage. “What’s your name?” he prompts.

“James,” the boy licks his lips nervously. “And look buddy, I don’t know what you think it is I can help you with but I don’t really swing that way at all.”

He puts a little persuasion into his voice and leans into James’ personal space.

“I think you do, I think you want to find out what it’s like and I’d very much like to show you.” James swallows convulsively and nods. He holds his hand up to the boy and James takes it but resists being pulled off the stage. “Come with me,” he orders.

James shakes his head. “No, I have to finish setting up,” the boy says and tries to free his hand. He adds a little more force to his voice.

“You’re done setting up, we’re going to have a private party, you’d like that wouldn’t you, James?” A blank look comes over the boy’s face and he nods and licks his lips again. He comes off the stage and follows him docilely out the back exit of the club and into his car.

***

Fitzroy shivers again for the fiftieth time and Kate studies him carefully over the book she’s supposed to be digging through for answers, the page she’s on explaining some complex ritual for binding people to masters, kind of like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and his thralls. The man, vampire, is under a pile of blankets and sweat is sticking his hair to his forehead but he’s still cold to the touch.

“Isn’t there anything at all that’s made things even a little bit easier?” she asks. Coreen looks up from the book she’s flipping through and sighs.

“He got a little bit better earlier when Mike tossed his coat over him but I guess he just can’t stay warm anymore,” the girl offers. Kate considers it carefully. She was always a good cop but it was her eye for details that got her through to detective.

“He bit Mike right?” she asks.

“Oh yeah, it wasn’t pretty though, he was kind of out of his mind at the time. He’s bitten Vicki before too,” Coreen offers. “Why? Curious? I am, I’m so jealous but whenever I offer I just get told no.” She kind of pouts and it makes Kate wonder if the girl isn’t crazy after all. She wouldn’t be so eager to offer her neck to a vampire, that’s for sure.

“Was that before or after Astaroth marked her?” she questions. Coreen frowns at her but answers, tone cautious.

“After, why?” she asks again. Kate bites her lip.

“Just a theory, but,” she looks back down at the page she’s been reading for the last few minutes and then blurts out “what if he bound Mike to him? Can vampires do that, like claim someone?” Coreen’s eyes widen in excitement.

“Oh my god, you’re right!” she jumps up and grabs Kate into a fast hug before darting into the other room where Mike and Vicki are digging up plates for the Chinese. She comes back a second later dragging a stunned Mike behind her.

“Coreen what the hell is going on?” Mike demands as he’s unceremoniously shoved on the couch beside Henry.

“It’s a work in progress,” Coreen says excitedly. “I think you can probably feed him and he’ll be able to keep it down.” 

“You and Vicki already tried that, what makes you think it’s going to work with me? You think that the third time is suddenly going to be the charm?” he asks.

“No, I think when he bit you he claimed you as his own,” Coreen says. Mike gives her a skeptical look and Coreen is quick to point a finger over at Kate. “She thinks so too!” she says and Mike looks over at Kate astonished.

“Yeah, and what does Kate know about vampires and claiming? She’s suddenly an expert?”

“Why don’t you try it?” Vicki says from the door to her side office. “Or are you a chicken?”

“Reverse psychology Vic? Really?” Vicki just shrugs and holds out the letter opener from her desk. Mike, faced with three women staring at him expectantly reluctantly grabs the letter opener from her hand.

“Do I want to know why this thing is sharp enough to cut skin?” he asks and then shakes his head. “Never mind, I don’t think I want to know at all. When this doesn’t work I get to say I told you so.”

“Fine, but give it a try already, stop wussing out,” Vicki orders. Kate hasn’t ever seen Mike so completely whipped before. It’s kind of interesting to see since Mike never lets anyone make him do something he doesn’t want to do. Not even Crowley.

Mike slashes the letter opener over his hand and hisses in pain before bringing his palm to Henry’s mouth. It takes a minute before the vampire realizes what’s happening and latches on and then they all hold their breaths.

***

“How long til we know if it’s working or not?” Mike asks. Henry is sucking down the blood as hard as he can, working his tongue into the wound to open it further and it’s creating a twisting feeling in his gut that he’s pretty familiar with. He really doesn’t want to be aroused in front of Vicki, Kate and Coreen all because Henry fucking Fitzroy is sucking and licking his hand.

“We knew right away,” Vicki says, tone neutral and when he looks up he can see she’s shuttered herself away behind a mask. She’s pissed off.

“Oh my god, that’s amazing,” Coreen’s voice is full of awe and she’s staring at him like he’s the best thing since sliced bread. “When he fed off of you in the church he claimed you as his own!” Vicki lets out a derisive snort but doesn’t offer up any comment and that’s when he realizes she’s jealous of the fact that Henry is taking his blood and it’s helping.

In fact, when he looks down, Henry is staring up at him conscious, he looks better then he has all day just from the little blood he’s ingesting. The wound is closing though so Mike pulls his hand away despite the panicked look in Henry’s eyes and returns it with a fresh cut over his palm for the vampire to worry at with his teeth and tongue. Mike grits his teeth and thinks about Dave in a bikini until the arousal dies.

“Gosh,” Coreen says in a breathy tone. “That’s kind of hot.” Mike pulls his hand away like he’s been scalded and Henry smirks at him.

“O-kay,” Vicki says, drawing out the word. “I think that’s enough excitement for one day. We need to figure out what the hell is going on and fast before Mike’s blood stops helping.”

***

“I’m scared,” James says, there’s a quiver of fear in his voice but the boy doesn’t move from where he’s been ordered to lie down. He gifts him with a smile and runs a hand down the side of the boy’s face.

“You don’t have to be afraid James, you’re going to play a very important part in my revenge. You’re the most important part there is.” He finishes tying the boy to the floor in the centre of the circle he painted on the floor with the blood of the other sacrifices.

The time is almost right. The moon will be rising soon and then the final stage of the ritual can be completed. He leaves the boy and moves across the warehouse floor to his bag, there are ingredients that need to be prepared.

***

“I don’t understand why you did this,” Mike says quietly. Coreen, Vicki and Kate are digging through the books again, Mike was ordered to sit down beside Henry and keep feeding him. Henry looks up from the cut he’s reopened with his blunt teeth.

“I was out of my mind at the time,” he says. “I was driven mad with hunger and desperate. You’re lucky Vicki was there to stop me because it could have gone another way.” 

“You mean you could have killed me,” Mike says. Henry stares up at him through his eyelashes and Mike sighs and nods to the blood dripping steadily down his wrist. “Better not let that go to waste, there aren’t any other vampires around to take it.” Henry bends down and licks a broad stripe up his wrist, catching all the blood and sending heat pooling down into Mike’s groin before he jerks up suddenly and stares at Mike.

“Say that again,” he orders.

“You could have killed me?” Mike asks confused. Henry shakes his head. “There aren’t any other vampires around.” Henry cocks his head to the side, eyes closed, hands gripping onto Mike’s arm tightly.

“There’s another vampire in town,” he says finally, blood pooling where his hand is wrapped around Mike’s wrist.

“Are you sure? Can you really sense someone?” Mike asks. Henry nods, eyes still closed, face screwed up in a mask of concentration.

“Very sure,” he says. “It’s there, I can barely feel it because of everything that’s happening but there’s someone there, another vampire encroaching on my territory.” His words end in an angry hiss that gets muted out by Coreen’s excited shriek.

“I found it!”

***

James shivers on the floor while he brushes the symbols into his skin. This is the last step, the blood of the other sacrifices, mixed with the required ingredients, it’s all he needs to turn the vampire into a human and then this territory will be his.

***

“It’s a ritual designed to strip powers away from a specific target, in this case Henry,” Coreen says. Mike’s blood has done Henry enough good that the vampire is pacing, albeit a little unsteadily across the room.

“But why?” he demands. “What purpose does it serve?”

“It doesn’t serve any,” Coreen says with a shrug and pushes the book towards Henry who ignores it in favour of continuing to pace. “As far as I can see, all it’s supposed to do is take your powers away. It doesn’t give them to anyone, it doesn’t make anyone stronger, it doesn’t give them any benefits.” Henry spins so fast he almost falls over and Mike’s arm around his waist is the only thing that keeps him upright.

“It does though,” he hisses. “If I’m gone then he gets my territory without having to go through proper channels. He’s probably a nobody, a vampire that was made and doesn’t have any claim to territory of his own so he’s taking mine for himself.”

“I don’t understand,” Vicki interrupts. “I thought you just staked out your territories. Like wolves or something, only without the pack mentality.”

“Wolves are completely separate,” Henry says shaking his head. “There are two classes of vampires, if you have to use the comparison, use Buffy. There are Masters and their childer and there are minions. Masters are more powerful, smarter, less conspicuous. We can lead normal lives in the night time. Minions are diluted, they’re barely vampires and they can barely control anything. They have no power and they have no territory because they can’t defend it.”

“I’m never, ever going to let you live down the fact that you used a Buffy analogy,” Vicki says. “But how do you make two different types of vampires?”

“They’re created the same way. Masters create their childer who then become Masters themselves. They’re humans drained of all their blood and fed the blood of their sire but a minion will only get enough of their sire’s blood to change them, where a childe would be fed continuously for months.” Kate’s phone rings loudly in the room and she pulls it out.

“Talk to me,” she orders the person on the other end. Her head jerks up and Mike watches her carefully while she snatches the pen right out of Coreen’s hand and scribbles a note down on a scrap piece of paper on the desk. “Got it, we’ll be right there,” she says and clicks her cell shut.

“What is it?” Mike asks, grabbing his coat off the back of the couch.

“They got a hit off a fingerprint in the database. A Richard Broadhurst, he’s supposed to have died eight years ago. They’ve got surveillance that shows him taking a man from a club downtown and there’s a loft registered in his name in the warehouse district.” They make it to the front door before Mike realizes that they have a parade following them. He turns to look at them with a raised eyebrow.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asks.

“With you,” Henry says and shoves past Mike into the hallway. Vicki just shrugs and points at Henry’s departing back.

“We’re going with him, so I guess that means we’re going with you,” she says and she and Coreen slide by.

“Oh god,” Kate moans. “I don’t even know how we’re going to explain this.” Mike shrugs and holds the door open for her.

“Welcome to my world. At least you didn’t just find out you’ve been claimed by a vampire.” Kate smirks at him over her shoulder.

“Yeah, but at least he’s cute right?” she asks. Mike can feel heat in his cheeks and blames it on the coat and not on a blush and follows Kate down to the car.

***

“You’re doing beautifully James,” he says and presses the knife down again, gently cutting the next symbol into the boy’s flesh, shallow little cuts tracing the symbols and mixing the old blood and herbs with the boy’s fresh blood. James whimpers under the knife as he moves to the next one.

“It’s very important that you stay still James, very important. If you move and I can’t complete even the small symbols then we’ll have to start all over, you don’t want me to have to start all over again do you? Find another boy who looks just like you, just like him and make him lie here?” It’s almost flattering how wide the boy’s eyes get and he shakes his head gently back and forth. There are tears in his eyes and tracks down his cheeks but they haven’t disturbed the marks on his face.

“That’s good James,” he murmurs the praise and the boy lets out a small cry when the knife slips a little deeper than he had intended. “Shhh,” he whispers.

“How about you pick on someone your own size?” he jerks around and stares at the object of the ritual standing in the doorway.

***

“How about you pick on someone your own size?” Henry demands. Anger is making him stronger, the fact that he’d fed off of Mike in the car helps. The other vampire is indeed a minion, not that old either, which makes Henry wonder how he ended up with the ritual knowledge that he has.

“How is this even possible?” the man demands. Henry cocks his head to the side and stares at him.

“Did you really think your little game would work? That you could just waltz into my territory, kill the people under my protection without me knowing, without me stopping you?” Henry hisses. The other vampire throws the knife down and stands fluidly.

“I think that it was almost pitifully easy, just as easy as she told me it would be.”

“She?” Henry asks and then it clicks. “Christine, huh? She sent you to do her dirty work for her?”

“I’m not doing anyone’s dirty work. I’m doing my own, and by the time I’m finished with you, Toronto isn’t going to be the Territory of Henry Fitzroy any longer, it’s going to belong to Richard Broadhurst,” Richard says.

“You’re insane,” Henry tells him. “And you’re a coward. A vampire too cowardly to outright challenge me isn’t worthy of holding a territory. You’re dust, you just don’t know it yet,” Henry says. Richard tilts his head to the side with a crazy gleam in his eyes.

“You can’t take me, not in the state you’re in. I don’t even know how you’re standing.” Henry lunges towards Richard and catches the other vampire, his chest pressed to Richard’s back, Richard’s head bent back under Henry’s arm.

“I’m standing because you were too stupid to realize I had a thrall, I’m standing because I am more powerful then you, I am smarter than you and I had the brains to get as far away from our dear mother as fast as I could. And you’re dead.” Richard’s neck snaps easily and he’s dead on the ground. He hears footsteps behind him and turns to see Mike coming into the room, gun raised. Kate is right behind him and Vicki and Coreen right behind her just in time to watch the other vampire’s body burst into flames and disappear.

“You shouldn’t have taken off like that!” Mike snaps and hurries to Henry’s side. Henry lets himself lean against Mike weakly. He completely agrees with Richard, he has no idea how he’s standing either. He turns weakly to look at Coreen.

“You know how to break the ritual?” he asks. She nods. Vicki and Kate untie the boy trapped in the middle of a pentagram on the floor of the loft.

He’s weak and tired and sunrise is close by, Mike’s heart is beating a mile a minute and it’s so temptingly close but Henry can’t do anything about it without fangs. He can hear sirens in the distance getting closer. Mike shoves Henry at Vicki.

“Get him out of here,” he orders. “Go, we’ll take care of this.” Vicki stares at Kate for a moment hard until Kate responds, holding the knife in her gloved hand.

“Go, it’s okay. He had a knife and he came and slashed his hand and then ran off. We were more concerned with the victim.” Vicki nods and she and Coreen take off, supporting Henry between them.

Kate kneels over the boy who’s crying openly now. “It’s okay,” she whispers to him, and Mike hands her his coat to cover the boy’s nakedness. “It’s over now,” she tells him, acutely aware that there’s no way this is over for her. This is only just the beginning.

***

Mike lets himself into the apartment, the door is unlocked. Henry calls his name and Mike closes and locks the door behind him before following Henry’s voice into the bedroom. Henry is sitting in the middle of the bed watching him, wearing silk pajama pants and a t-shirt.

“Vicki took Coreen home, how did things go with your boss?” Henry asks. Mike leans against the doorframe.

“As well as can be expected,” he says. “She’s not happy that he ‘got away’ but with Kate there to back me up and with the victim being too scared to remember anything she really didn’t have much else to go on.” 

Henry holds a hand out for Mike and raises an eyebrow in question. Mike takes the offered hand and lets himself get pulled down onto the bed.

“Coreen’s thing worked out?” he asks. Henry’s eyes go completely black and his fangs come out, Mike can’t fight the shiver that comes over him and Henry smirks at him, fangs and all. “I guess it did,” Mike mutters as Henry lets the fangs and eyes go back to normal. “Why am I here?” he asks. It’s the same question he’s been asking himself since he left the station and turned right instead of left towards his own home.

“You’re my chosen one,” Henry says simply. “Now that you know, you can’t not know, you can’t stay away from me as much as I can’t stay away from you.” Mike stares at Henry skeptically.

“It’s been months since you bit me in that church,” he says. “Why now?”

“I didn’t make you my thrall,” the vampire murmurs, he reaches a hand up and touches Mike’s cheek softly, caresses down his neck to rest his hand over the scar his bite left and Mike shudders. “I made you my chosen. In my madness I recognized in you something that I wanted and I claimed it for myself before anyone else could but it had to be your choice. You willingly shared your blood with me to heal me, to make me better, you completed the circle.”

Henry’s hand locks around the back of Mike’s neck and pulls him in until their faces are barely separated. “Tell me you don’t want this,” he orders. Mike opens his mouth to say the words but he can’t lie to himself anymore.

“I think I’ve wanted this since the first day I saw you,” he says instead and Henry crushes their mouths together. His tongue sweeps into Mike’s mouth possessive and dominating as he bears Mike down to the bed, hands still tangled in Mike’s hair.

It’s like fire licking its way down his body from the places that Henry’s hands touch and Henry’s hands touch everywhere. Down his arm, resting on his hip, over his chest and down his legs. By the time Henry’s nimble fingers have finished unbuttoning Mike’s dress shirt, Mike is rock hard and he can feel Henry’s erection pressing against his thigh. He rocks upwards in response and is rewarded with a groan as Henry’s hands move down to his pants.

“Lift your arms,” Mike orders softly, hands running underneath Henry’s shirt, nails dragging lightly over the toned muscle there to hear the vampire hiss in delight. He pulls Henry’s shirt off and sighs at the skin on skin contact. Henry’s hand dips into Mike’s open pants and palms Mike’s cock through his boxers.

“You’re wearing too many clothes,” Henry complains and Mike finds himself shoved up the bed as his pants and boxers hit the floor. He raises an eyebrow and lays there naked in the centre of Henry’s bed while the vampire looks his fill.

“Look who’s talking,” he says and Henry grins at him and with a fluid roll he’s on his feet beside the bed and then his pants are gone and he’s standing there in all his glory, cock heavy and straining towards his flat stomach. Mike feels his mouth water just thinking about it and dives in, sucking the length of him down.

Henry isn’t the first man that Mike has been with, he may be a cop but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have an open mind. He’s always been good at blow jobs. Henry lets out a surprised moan as Mike swallows him down a little further and a little more until his nose is resting against Henry’s short hairs and Henry’s cock is completely down his throat.

“God, Michael,” Henry murmurs and the sound of his name in that voice makes Mike want to come right there. He sucks and licks, moves his tongue around as much as he can for a minute until Henry’s hand clamps in his hair and pulls him away. The vampire is staring at his mouth with heavy eyes as he crawls up the bed, resting over Mike but not touching him.

“Tell me what you want,” he orders, voice husky, eyes black. Mike lets out a soft moan at the sight, his breath coming in pants.

“God, I want you to fuck me, please, please fuck me,” he begs. “I want to feel you inside of me, I want to feel you come inside of me.” Henry presses their bodies full length against each other and rocks.

“You sound so pretty when you beg,” Henry murmurs. Mike’s voice turns to a continuous litany of broken pleas and gasping moans as Henry’s fingers slip inside of him, one after the other until he has four fingers in him and Mike is bearing down on them, fucking himself on them hard until Henry pulls them away, ignoring Mike’s sound of complaint as he replaces his fingers with his slicked up cock. Slides home in one stroke that has Mike’s back arching and his hand reaching for his cock. Henry catches it and presses their joined hands up against the pillows before letting go and grabbing onto Mike’s hips. Mike leaves his hands on the pillows, clutching them desperately. Henry’s next stroke has Mike crying out and jerking against him desperately as Henry tilts his hips, finds his prostate. It’s mindless after that, both men seeking completion. 

Henry’s hands bruise Mike’s hips as he holds him tight and fucks into him over and over until Mike’s body seizes and he comes hard without Henry having ever touched his cock. He tilts his head to the side and Henry snarls in approval and dives down, fangs burying into Mike’s neck over the claim mark. Mike’s body twitches hard as he comes a second time to the feel of Henry coming inside of him. The vampire’s hips thrusting erratically as he finds his own completion.

When he recovers sufficiently Mike opens his eyes and stares up at the bedroom ceiling. Henry is still on top of him, his fangs aren’t out any more but his tongue is laving Mike’s neck on the ultra sensitive bite mark.

“God,” Mike sighs. Henry chuckles and raises his head.

“You called?” he asks.

“If I had the energy I’d smack you,” Mike says. Henry laughs and settles down beside Mike, arm over Mike’s stomach, leg over Mike’s hips.

“So does this mean you’re mine?” Henry asks him as he settles his head on Mike’s shoulder. Mike contemplates his answer for a minute.

“As long as it means you’re mine,” he says finally. Henry smirks as the sun comes up and he dies for the day. His words fading off as his whispers.

“I think I can manage that.”

/End


End file.
